Cardiff System
¶ System Information
- Affiliation: Highlands Cluster
- Estimated Population: ~480 million
- Primary Industry: Shipbuilding, heavy manufacturing
- Points of Interest:
The Cardiff System is the Welsh heart of the Highlands Cluster and home to Emory Shipwrights, one of the most respected shipbuilders in Freelance space. If Aberdeen is where they build warships, Cardiff is where they build everything else.
¶ Overview
Cardiff was settled by colonists of Welsh descent who wanted to preserve their language and culture far from Earth's homogenizing influence. They succeeded—Welsh remains the primary language in many Cardiff communities, and the system maintains traditions that have faded elsewhere.
But Cardiff is more than a cultural preserve. The system's mineral wealth and skilled workforce made it a natural home for shipbuilding, and Emory Shipwrights has grown from a small yard into a major manufacturer. Emory specializes in civilian vessels—freighters, mining ships, passenger liners—built with a reputation for reliability and craftsmanship.
¶ Points of Interest
¶ Cardiff
The system's primary world and namesake, Cardiff is dominated by the sprawling complexes of Emory Shipwrights. The planetary capital grew around the original Emory yards, and the company remains the largest employer on the planet.
Outside the industrial zones, Cardiff maintains the green valleys and careful urban planning that the original colonists insisted upon. The Welsh language is heard everywhere, and cultural festivals mark the calendar year. Visitors often remark that Cardiff feels more like a homeland than a colony.
¶ Tregaron
Tregaron is Cardiff's mining world, a rocky planet rich in the metals and rare elements that feed the system's shipyards. The work is hard, the pay is decent, and the mining communities maintain a fierce local pride.
Tregaron miners have a reputation for solidarity—cross one, and you've crossed them all. This has made labor relations in the Cardiff system more equitable than in many industrial regions, as Emory learned early that happy workers build better ships.
¶ Swansea
Swansea is an industrial moon where raw materials from Tregaron are refined and processed before reaching the shipyards. Refineries, smelters, and component manufacturers cover much of the surface.
Life on Swansea is industrial but not grim. The workers here are well-compensated, and the communities maintain Welsh cultural traditions even amid the factories.
¶ Tywyn
Tywyn is the system's agricultural colony, a smaller world dedicated to feeding the population of the more industrial planets. The planet is known for its sheep farming—wool from Tywyn commands premium prices across the Cluster.
¶ Emory Shipwrights
Emory Shipwrights is one of the two great shipbuilders of the Highlands Cluster, specializing in civilian vessels. Where Talbot Yards in Aberdeen builds warships and military contracts, Emory focuses on the workhorse ships that keep interstellar commerce running.
Emory vessels are known for reliability and longevity. An Emory freighter might not be the fastest or most elegant ship in the void, but it will still be running when flashier competitors have long since been scrapped. "Built to last" is the company motto, and they mean it.
The company maintains its headquarters on Cardiff but operates subsidiary yards and service facilities across Freelance space.